PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of experiences in home visiting nursing service among the elderly in community provided by nursing students. METHOD: This is a phenomenological study to investigate the experience of community-based patients. Data were collected through in-depth interviews from the 4th of March to the 15th of December 2003. Individual interviews were conducted with 8 patients on subjective experiences. Data were analyzed through Colaizzi's method, in which meaningful statements were extracted. RESULT: Four categories were identified from nine theme clusters. The four categories were 'thankfulness', 'dependence', 'sorrowfulness' and 'the sense of being'. CONCLUSION: These results show the importance of visiting nursing service for the elderly in community.
Aged* ; House Calls* ; Humans ; Life Change Events ; Nursing Services* ; Qualitative Research ; Students, Nursing

A 52-year-old man was found dead in the driver's seat of his tank lorry. The tank lorry was used to transport industrial wastewater to a disposal plant; the material was transferred into a storage tank with the help of compressed air. The wastewater contained methylene chloride and 2-chloropyridine. No respiratory protective equipment was used while working under these conditions. The autopsy report showed extensive edema and congestion of the brain, lung, and intraperitoneal organs. The concentrations of methylene chloride in lung and brain were reported at 398 and 67 mg/kg, respectively.
Autopsy ; Brain ; Compressed Air ; Edema ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Humans ; Lung ; Methylene Chloride ; Middle Aged ; Pyridines ; Waste Water

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze factors affecting burnout among clinical nurses according to Positive Psychological Capital. METHODS: The study design was a descriptive survey and questionnaires were collected from 412 clinical nurses who worked in a general hospital in "J" city. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, independent t-test, One-way ANOVA, Scheffe test, Pearson Correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression. RESULTS: In Model individual characteristics accounted for 27.8% of the influence on burnout. In model II with the addition of the 4 factors; Self-efficacy, Hope, Resilience, Optimism, individual characteristics accounted for 48.5% of the influence on burnout. Optimism and Resilience of the Positive Psychological Capital sub-variables were statistically useful as factors influencing burnout. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that it is necessary to develop active human resource management and educational programs to decrease burnout and strengthen the Positive Psychological Capital of the nurses.
Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Purpose: This study was attempted to identify the importance and performance of person-centered care in nurses in intensive care units (ICU) at general hospitals and to derive the priority of practical person-centered care needs and intervention by analysing their needs. Methods: A total of 156 ICU nurses who wrote a written consent participated in a survey questionnaire on person-centered critical care nursing (PCCN). The collected data were analyzed using paired t-test, Borich’s needs assessment, and the Locus for Focus Model. Results: All 15 items of person-centered care in ICU nurses were found to be significantly higher in perception of importance than performance level (t=17.98, p<.001). According to the analysis of Borich's needs and the Locus of Focus Model, person-centered care items with highest priority in ICU were therapeutic contact, comfort words and actions, and efforts to empathize with patients in the compassion category. Conclusion As a strategy to improve the person-centered nursing performance of ICU nurses in the ‘individuality’, it is necessary for ICU nurses to recognize the ICU patients as an individualized person, not as a disease or machine-dependent entity. Also, it is necessary to develop programs to improve the ICU nurses' compassion competence because ‘compassion’ was a top priority according to Borich's needs assessment model and the Locus for Focus Model.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the relationship between chronotype and sleep disturbance, and assessed various factors that might be associated with sleep disturbance in Korean firefighters. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires assessing chronotype, depression, alcohol use, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), stress response and sleep quality were examined in 515 firefighters. RESULTS: Evening type firefighters more reported depression, alcohol use, PTSD, stress response and sleep disturbance. Also evening chronotype was the most significant risk factor for poor sleep quality (odds ratio [OR], 4.812; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.448-9.459), even after controlling for all other variables (OR, 3.996; 95% CI, 1.806-8.841). CONCLUSION: Chronotype was the factor most strongly associated with sleep disturbance, and therefore should be considered an important variable in sleep quality, particularly in occupations involving stressful activities, such as firefighting.
Depression ; Firefighters* ; Humans ; Occupations ; Risk Factors ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

Partial Trisomy of 3p (Trisomy of 3p2, dup (3) (p23-->pter)) is a characteristic syndrome of chromosomal duplication of distal part of 3p, but breakpoints seem to vary in location. This syndrome shows multiple congenital anomalies with severe mental retardation, characteristic craniofacial change and absence of other gross external abnormalities. The craniofacial dysmorphism includes frontal bossing and temporal indentation, square face, marked hypertelorism, thick and short nose, full lips and a large mouth with downturned corners. Congenital heart defect, most frequently ASD and VSD, are found in most patients. In the majority of patients, the 3p2 duplication is the unbalanced product of a parental autosomal translocation involving 3p2 and another chromosome. We report a case of female baby who has facial dysmorphism, ASD and hyptonia and was found to have 3p2 duplidation (46XX-9, +der(9)t (3:9)(p23:p24)) by chromosomal analysis. Also we found her father was a carrier of blanced translocation of 3p2 and chromosome 9p (46XY, t(3:9)(p23:p24)).
Chromosome Duplication ; Fathers ; Female ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; Humans ; Hypertelorism ; Intellectual Disability ; Lip ; Mouth ; Nose ; Parents ; Trisomy*

OBJECTIVES: The previous studies have suggested genetic vulnerability to restless legs syndrome (RLS) development. The occurrence of antipsychotic-related RLS could also be attributable to differences in genetic susceptibility. This study aimed to investigate whether Retinoid-related orphan receptor A (RORA) gene polymorphism is associated with antipsychotic-related RLS in schizophrenia. METHODS: We assessed symptoms of antipsychotic-induced RLS in 190 Korean schizophrenic patients and divided the subjects into two groups according to the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group diagnostic criteria : 1) subjects that met all of the criteria (n=44) and 2) the remaining subjects who were not considered to be RLS patients (n=146). Single-nucleotide polymorphism in the RORA gene was genotyped by PCR in 190 individuals. The chi2-test was conducted to compare differences between two groups. RESULTS: The frequencies of genotype (chi2=0.066, p=0.968) of the RORA gene (rs11071547) did not differ significantly between schizophrenic patients with and without RLS. The difference of allele frequencies (chi2=0.008, p=0.927) of the RORA gene (rs 11071547) between the schizophrenic patients with and without RLS were not significant. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that RORA gene polymorphism does not play a major role in susceptibility to antipsychotic-related RLS in schizophrenia.
Child ; Child, Orphaned ; Circadian Rhythm ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genotype ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Restless Legs Syndrome* ; Schizophrenia*

BACKGROUND: N-nitrosomorpholine (NNM) is a genotoxic hepatocarcinogenic agent. Preneoplastic and neoplastic hepatocyte lesions were induced in rats by oral exposure to NNM (200 mg/L) in a stop model experiment. Platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGF-R) is a tyrosine kinase receptor that works with PDGF, stimulating cellular growth and proliferation. The present study was designed to determine the role of PDGF-R alpha expression in hepatocellular neoplasms and precursors. METHODS: Seventeen rats out of a starting number of 30 died. From the fifth week until the 24th week one or two rats were evaluated. Preneoplastic single cells or foci, foci of altered hepatocytes (FAH) hepatocellular adenomas (HCA) and hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) were studied histologically, and the expressions of GSTp and PDGF-R alpha by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: At the fifth week, GSTp +single cells showed PDGF-R alpha expression (20.8+/-5.8%). At the sixth week, GSTp +single cells, located at periportal areas, co-expressed PDGF-R alpha (43.4+/-9.6%). Over the next several weeks periportal hepatocytes showed weaker PDGF-R alpha expression but no GSTp. GSTp+FAH, and all HCA, demonstrated no PDGF-R alpha expression. However, nine out of 10 (90%) HCC showed PDGF-R alpha expression. CONCLUSIONS: These data showed that there were two peaks of PDGF-R alpha expression, and suggest that the earlier expression is related with the response to NNM-induced hepatocyte toxicity, and that the later response is associated to malignant transformation.
Adenoma, Liver Cell ; Animals ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Hepatocytes ; Immunohistochemistry ; Models, Animal* ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; Rats* ; Receptors, Platelet-Derived Growth Factor

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Eukaryotic cell cycle is regulated by signal transduction pathways mediated by complexes of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) and their partner cyclins, or by interaction with CDK inhibitors. Thioacetamide (TA) is a weak hepatocarcinogen causing several types of liver damage in a dose dependent manner and ultimately producing malignant transformation. We investigated alterations of expression of cell cycle regulators in the rat liver, involved in G1 entry and progression during TA administration. METHODS: We studied expression patterns of cyclin D1, CDK4, CDK6, p21(CIP1) and p16(INK4a) during daily intraperitoneal injection of low dose TA (50 mg/kg) till 7 day. We used western blot and immunohistochemistry for detection. RESULTS: Expression of cyclin D1, CDK4, CDK6 and p21(CIP1) increased from 6 hour and peaked at 2, 3 day, then decreased next 2 days, and re-increased at 6 day. Cytoplasmo-nuclear translocation of cyclin D1 and p21(CIP1) was evident within 1 day and prominent at 2 and 7 day. Expression of p16(INK4a) increased immediately after TA treatment and remarkably increased from 3 day and progressed till 7 day, showing cytoplasmic location, suggestive of inactive form. Most of in situ immunoreactions occurred at the centrilobular hepatocytes. Concomitant nuclear translocation of p21(CIP1) and cyclin D1, different with p16(INK4a) suggests that p21(CIP1) might be a transporter for nuclear translocation rather than cell cycle inhibitor. CONCLUSIONS: Daily administration of low dose TA makes cell cycle open and G1 progress, possibly due to cyclin D1, CDK4 and CDK 6, their transporter p21(CIP1), and inactive p16(INK4a), which occur at quiescent hepatocytes, not stem cells.
Animals ; Cell Cycle Proteins/*metabolism ; Cyclin D1/metabolism ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4/metabolism ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 6/metabolism ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16/metabolism ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21/metabolism ; G1 Phase ; Immunohistochemistry ; Liver/*drug effects/enzymology/metabolism ; Liver Diseases/chemically induced/metabolism/pathology ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Thioacetamide/*toxicity

PURPOSE: This study was to compare quality of life, sexual function, and depression between a group with sexually active women and the other with sexually inactive women who undertaken mastectomy. METHODS: Participants were 106 breast cancer patients who had spouse and participated in self-help group in Gwangju, Korea. The questionnaires were consisted of Quality of Life Index-Cancer Version (Q.L.I.-C), self-rating depression scale, and Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). Data were analyzed using the SPSS Win 14.0 K+ for descriptive statistics, t-test, ANCOVA, and MANOVA. RESULTS: There were no homogeneity at age, job, educational years between sexually active vs. inactive groups. In sexually active group, mean age was 46.1, having job 34.5%, bachelor's degree 38.2%, and pre-menopause 79.2%; for the inactive group 49.6, 10.4%, 12.5%, and 52.7% seperately. There were significant differences in quality of life, sexual function, and depression between two groups when four covariates were controlled. The quality of life and sexual function in sexually active group were significantly higher than inactive group(p<0.001). The depression in sexually active group was significantly lower than inactive group(p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study indicates that nurses are needed to counsel and intervene psychosexual approach especially sexually inactive women with breast cancer during the recovery period.
Breast Neoplasms ; Depression ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Mastectomy ; Premenopause ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Self-Help Groups ; Sexual Behavior ; Spouses